This
morning we have heard the next installment in the story of Joseph
and his brothers. Last week we heard of the time his brothers
decided to do away with him and sold him into slavery to a band of
passing Mideonites. Joseph ended up in Egypt as a servant in
Pharoah’s court. Between last week’s reading and today’s passage
from Genesis 45 a few more things happened to Joseph and, SURPRISE!,
he is now a valued man who works for Pharoah and actually has quite
a bit of power in Egypt; a long way from the little daddy’s boy who
got thrown into a pit and left to die because his brothers couldn’t
stand him. Now, those same brothers are standing before
Joseph—although they don’t know who he is—and they are seeking
help. What could have been a morality tale entitled “what goes
around comes around” turns into a story of forgiveness and mercy.
But there is that moment, that short breath of time, just after
Joseph reveals his identity to his brothers, when the brothers wait
to find out what is going to happen. Not only are they in a
position of needing help, they have asked the one person in the
world who could, perhaps legitimately, deny them help—or use his
power to put them in jail…or worse!

Mercy. Forgiveness. The power of words to heal and unite. To mend
broken hearts and comfort broken lives. Remember that time when all
you hoped for was to be welcomed back into someone’s life? How
about the burden of knowing that you screwed up and hurt someone
else? What about those moments when you can’t seem to stay busy
enough to forget how worthless or alone you feel? I think, on our
good days, most of us can usually accept that we have been forgiven
and that God’s mercy is for us. But there are days when we feel
like Joseph’s brothers, waiting to hear that help is available but
sure that it will be denied. Waiting to find out if we are going to
be forgiven or left to rot in the prison of our mistakes.
Wondering if this is going to be the sin that finally drives God
away for good.

Our
gospel passage contains two encounters, the first scenario is
actually the end of the first encounter and it is between Jesus and
those who were very concerned about ritual cleanliness and the
second scenario is between Jesus and a gentile woman who needed
help.

Ritual
cleanliness…doesn’t seem like a controversial subject…I mean,
everyone likes to be clean, right? Well…here’s the deal. This was
not washing hands like we usually think of it…soap or
disinfectant…cleaning under our fingernails…you know, actually
cleaning off dirt and germs. This was more of a sacred ritual that
probably didn’t do a lot of actual cleaning. AND, if they did not
wash, then they could not participate fully in their religious
life. Jesus’ disciples were getting called on the carpet for not
doing this ritual. So according to the tradition, they were
defiling themselves by eating with unclean hands. That brings us to
today’s passage with Jesus teaching about the difference between
what goes into the mouth and what comes out of the mouth.

Like
so many situations, the problem being debated is not the real
issue. The big problem was not the neglect of the ritual, but that
by not doing the ritual, the disciples were acting like gentiles.
“They” were acting like “them.” The dividing line between Jew and
Gentile was becoming blurry. And this whole conversation between
Jesus, the disciples and the Pharisees is a set up for the
conversation to come between Jesus and the Canaanite (gentile)
woman.

She
comes to Jesus for help. Her daughter is sick. And Jesus, in a
very non-Jesus way, says no, his first priority is his own people.
But this woman does not give up—she has a sick child. And Jesus
relents, commends her for her faith and assures her that her child
has been healed.

At
first, it seems as though Jesus is going to keep the dividing line
between “them” and “us”, Jews and gentiles. God’s mercy was
reserved for Israel. Now there are many theories as to why Jesus
acted the way he did. The two most popular these: 1. Jesus wanted
to use his encounter with the woman as a teaching moment for his
disciples or 2. Jesus had a more narrow understanding of his
mission, but because he opened his heart to a stranger in need, he
grew in his own self-understanding. Quite honestly, either theory
works for me because the result in the same: God’s mercy is for
everyone. When we are talking about the grace and love of God,
there is no “us” and “them.” The dividing lines must go away. The
words that come out of our mouths must come from hearts that finally
understand that there is no distinction between people when it comes
to God’s mercy. There is no distinction between sin when it comes
to God’s mercy.

Those
moments when we are waiting, like Joseph’s brothers, to find out if
we are going to receive mercy or a swift kick, no longer have to
exist. We don’t have to worry or wait or wonder when God is finally
going to say…”that’s enough. I’ve had it with you. Don’t bother
calling on me anymore.”

When
we stand in worship and we sing the words, “Lord, have mercy” we can
finally believe that mercy will come. We stand in solidarity with
the Canaanite woman and, like her, we are bold enough to cry out
because we can be confident that God will hear us and will respond.

Author
and church development consultant, Kelly Fryer, tells of a time in
seminary when she was listening to an uninteresting lecture on a
beautiful day when everyone would rather be outside. Apparently the
professor sensed that nobody was being attentive because suddenly he
closed his notebook and stopped talking. “He wasn’t going to waste
one more breath on us,” she writes. But, before leaving the lecture
hall, he picked up a piece of chalk and going to the blackboard he
drew a huge arrow pointing straight down. He stood back and told the
class, “If you understand that, you understand everything you need
to know about what it means to be a Christian …” and with that he
left the room.

Everyone remained for a time staring at the arrow pointing downward.
Fryer admits that the most logical thing she could think was,
“He thinks we’re all going to hell.”

But the next time the class met the professor began his lecture by
drawing that same arrow on the board. This time he had everyone’s
complete attention. “Here’s what this means,” he told them. “God
always comes down. God always
comes down. There is never anything
that we can do to turn that arrow around and make our way UP to God.
God came down in Jesus. And God still comes down, in the bread and
in the wine, in the water and in the fellowship of believers. God
ALWAYS comes down.”

We trust in this because we know we must have this mercy and love in
our lives. We read with confidence the words of Paul, that God is
merciful to all. Thanks be to God!